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Fireball, a form of malicious software developed in Beijing, can manipulate web traffic to generate revenue from online advertisements, transforming browsers into "zombies." Fireball can even install plug-ins and unwanted configurations to increase ad sales.

Additionally, Fireball serves as a "prominent distributor" of more malware, according to cybersecurity firm Check Point on Thursday.

"This operation is run by Rafotech, a large digital marketing agency," the company said. "Rafotech uses Fireball to manipulate the victims’ browsers and turn their default search engines and homepages into fake search engines. This redirects the queries to either yahoo.com or Google.com. The fake search engines include tracking pixels used to collect the users’ private information."

Fireball can spy on the online habits and private information of infected users - leading to significant security risks for networks and individuals.

India was hit hardest by Fireball, with 25.3 million incidents detected. At least 5.5 million computers have been infected in the U.S.

"Although Rafotech uses Fireball only for advertising and initiating traffic to its fake search engines, it can perform any action on the victims’ machines," Check Point said.

Is your computer infected?

Check by opening your web browser. Is your homepage set to the same website? Are you able to modify it? Is your default search engine the same? Check your browser's extensions. Do they look familiar? If you answered no to any of these questions, your PC may be compromised. A scanner can remove adware and protect from future attacks.

Cybercrime isn't slowing down - a December report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that overall financial losses from cyberattacks would reach more than $6 trillion annually by 2021. In 2015, it was just $3 trillion.

Last year, 34 percent of US-based companies experienced some type of online security breach, according to a report from Bitdefender. Even more alarming - two-thirds of companies surveyed said they would pay an average of $124,000 to keep the hack private, leaving unsuspecting customers in the dark.